Passing The Three Gates

by Johnson, Charles Richard

• ISBN13: 9780295984391
• ISBN10: 0295984392
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-30
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr

Summary

Known for his blending of philosophy, spirituality, humour, and a rollicking good story, Charles Johnson is one of the most important novelists writing today. From his magical first novel, Faith and the Good Thing, to his decidedly philosophical Oxherding Tale; from his swashbuckling indictment of the slave trade in the National Book Award-winning Middle Passage, to his more recent imaginative treatment of Martin Luther King Jr. in Dreamer, Johnson has continually surprised, instructed, and entertained his many avid readers. As this collection of interviews suggests, the novelist is as multifaceted and complex as his novels. Trained in cartooning and philosophy, martial arts and meditation, and producing teleplays, photobiographies, and literary criticism in addition to fiction, Charles Johnson represents a model of what he calls "life as art." Jim McWilliams has gathered here the most significant of Johnson's many interviews in a chronological progression, giving an invaluable account of Johnson's development from the late 1970s until the early years of the twenty-first century. Drawn from a neighbourhood newsletter and an alumni magazine as well as the most prestigious academic journals, these interviews bring up many essential elements of Johnson's life and work: his religious development from the AME Church to Buddhism; the importance to him of family; his emergence out of the civil rights and the black power movements, and how his writing responds to both; the importance of his relationship with his mentor John Gardner and his own work as a teacher of creative writing; his interest in phenomenology and philosophical fiction. Capping the collection are two previously unpublished interviews that reflect back upon Johnson's career, even as they look forward to what Johnson calls "Act Three" of his life. Alluding to the "Three Gates" of Buddhist "Right Speech," the title of this volume aptly captures the generous spirit that characterizes Charles Johnson's work. An indispensable resource for all of Johnson's many readers, Passing the Three Gates represents both the transformation of the artist over time and the continuity and endurance of his aesthetic and spiritual vision.

Author Biography

Jim McWilliams is associate professor of English at Dickinson State University, North Dakota

Table of Contents

Foreword
CHARLES JOHNSON	ix
Preface
JIM McWILLIAMS	xvii
Acknowledgments	xxvii
Chronology of Charles Johnson's Life	xxix
Reflections on Film, Philosophy, and Fiction: An Interview with Charles Johnson (1978)
KEN McCULLOUGH	3	(13)
Charles Johnson (1987)
NICHOLAS O'CONNELL	16	(18)
Being and Race: An Interview with Charles Johnson (1988)
GEORGE MYERS, JR.	34	(8)
Author Navigates Uncharted Waters: Middle Passage Takes Readers on a Spirited Journey (1990)
M.L. LYKE	42	(6)
Winner of National Book Award Won't Be a "Voice of Black America" (1991)
PETER MONAGHAN	48	(5)
The Philosopher and the American Novel (1991)
Q & A AT THE CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY	53	(15)
The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1991)
CYRA McFADDEN	68	(10)
An Interview with Charles Johnson (1992)
PHOEBE BOSCHE	78	(15)
A Life of Balance Through Martial Arts (1992)
TIM ALLEN	93	(4)
An Interview with Charles Johnson (1993)
JONATHAN LITTLE	97	(26)
An Interview with Charles Johnson (1993)
MARIAN BLUE	123	(19)
Charles Johnson: Interview (1993)
LINDA DAVIES	142	(17)
Interviews with Northwest Writers: Charles Johnson (1993)
IRENE WANNER	159	(33)
An Interview with Charles Johnson (1996)
MICHAEL BOCCIA	192	(14)
A Man of His Word (1998)
BETH GRUBB	206	(8)
A Conversation with Charles Johnson (1998)
WILLIAM R. NASH	214	(22)
The Human Dimension: An Interview with Writer-Philosopher Charles Johnson (1999)
CHARLES MUDEDE	236	(10)
An Interview with Charles Johnson (2002)
JENNIFER LEVASSEUR AND KEVIN RABALAIS	246	(25)
An Interview with Charles Johnson (2003)
JIM McWILLIAMS	271	(29)
Shoulder to the Wheel: An Interview with Charles Johnson (2003)
JOHN WHALEN-BRIDGE	300	(17)
Works by Charles Johnson	317	(3)
Works about Charles Johnson's Fiction	320	(4)
Additional Interviews with Charles Johnson	324	(3)
Index	327